Steel coils weighing between 15,000 and 30,000 pounds are commonly stored on a pair of 4.times.4s nailed or spiked into the ground or into the floor about 10-20 inches apart. This, if done right, keeps the coil from contacting the ground or floor. If the 4.times.4s are not spiked or not spiked well, the weight and force of a dropped coil (dropped by a "cowboy" fork lift operator) can spread the 4.times.4s and result in the coil contacting the (often concrete) floor or ground. This can lead to moisture reaching the coil and result in rusting of the coil.
While various other means have been suggested for preventing the spread of the timbers supporting a coil during the relatively short period when they are shipped or transported on a truck bed (examples of these are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,876,173 and 4,106,735), these suffer from certain drawbacks when used in long-term steel coil storage. That is, these racks often allow the coil to contact the surface between the timber and, when not properly loaded with a coil, they also restrain the 4.times.4s in only one horizontal direction and thus allow the 4.times.4s (when not carrying a coil) to slide and move about and, as a plurality of separate racks are needed in storage, the racks themselves can be easily knocked out of alignment and, if the loose 4.times.4s are struck by a coil being loaded on it, the 4.times.4s can easily jump out of the conventional rack entirely.